Featured News

13-Billion-Year-Old Galaxy Protocluster Found

The z66OD protocluster: the blue shading shows the calculated extent of the protocluster, and the bluer color indicates higher density of galaxies in the protocluster; the red objects in zoom-in figures are the 12 galaxies found in it. Image credit: NAOJ / Harikane et al.
Oct 1, 2019 by News Staff

Using the Subaru, Keck, and Gemini telescopes, astronomers have discovered a young cluster of galaxies in the early Universe. Named z66OD, the protocluster contains at least 12 huge galaxies and is 13 billion light-years away. It is the earliest galaxy protocluster ever observed, meaning such large-scale structures were around very early in the Universe’s existence. The z66OD protocluster: the blue shading shows the calculated extent of the protocluster,...

read more...

Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov Probably Came from Double Red Dwarf Kruger 60

Sep 30, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

A new study by astronomers from the A. Mickiewicz University and the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences suggests that the interstellar...

This composite image, obtained by the Gemini North Multi-Object Spectrograph on the 8.2-m Gemini North telescope, shows the interstellar comet C/2019 Q4. Image credit: Gemini Observatory / NSF / AURA / Travis Rector.

Astronomers Detect Cyanide Gas in Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

Sep 28, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

Astronomers have for the first time detected cyanide (CN) gas — a common ingredient of solar system comets — in the coma of an interstellar...

When a star strays too close to a black hole, intense tides break it apart into a stream of gas. The tail of the stream escapes the system, while the rest of it swings back around, surrounding the black hole with a disk of debris. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

TESS Spots Its First Tidal Disruption Event

Sep 27, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) gave astronomers an unexpected glimpse at a black hole violently ripping apart a Sun-sized star....

Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia. Image credit: Alex Demin / CC BY-SA 4.0.

New Research Sheds Light on Everyday Life in Denisova Cave

Sep 27, 2019 by News Staff

At least three hominins (Denisovans, Neanderthals, and early Homo sapiens) and large cave-dwelling carnivores (hyena, wolves, and even bears) used Denisova...

An artist’s impression of a blazar. Image credit: DESY / Science Communication Lab.

Do Gamma-Ray Jets Really Achieve Superluminal Speeds?

Sep 26, 2019 by News Staff

High-speed particle jets from gamma-ray bursts may exceed the speed of light in surrounding gas clouds, but do so without violating Einstein’s theory...

Reconstruction of the Trypillian giant-settlement Maidanetske, Ukraine. Image credit: Kenny Arne Lang Antonsen / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Mega-Structures of Ukraine’s Trypillia Culture Served as Community Centers

Sep 26, 2019 by News Staff

Mega-structures of the Trypillia culture, which was part of the larger Cucuteni-Trypillia culture, were public buildings that served a variety of economic...

Broken and rounded dodecahedral diamond from the Koffiefontein kimberlite pipe that hosted goldschmidtite; the mineral is seen in green and radiation damage of the diamond can be seen in the brown regions. Image credit: Meyer et al, doi: 10.2138/am-2019-6937.

Goldschmidtite: New Mineral from Earth’s Mantle Found inside Diamond

Sep 24, 2019 by Natali Anderson

A team of geologists from the University of Alberta, Northwestern University and the University of Glasgow has found a previously unknown mineral in a...

Pet cats show a similar capacity for the formation of secure and insecure attachments towards human caregivers previously demonstrated in children and dogs. Image credit: Pexels.

Pet Cats Really Bond with Their Owners, Says New Study

Sep 24, 2019 by News Staff

Domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) form attachments with their owners that are similar to the bonds formed by children and dogs with their caretakers,...

An artist’s reconstruction of two rauisuchians fighting over a desiccated corpse of a mammal-relative in the Triassic of southern Africa. In the background, dinosaurs and mammal-like reptiles form other parts of the ecosystem. Image credit: Viktor Radermacher.

Triassic Crocodile Cousins Preyed on Plant-Eating Dinosaurs

Sep 24, 2019 by News Staff

Rauisuchians — predatory crocodile-like creatures that lived during the Triassic period, some 210 million years ago — preyed on early herbivorous...

This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows a beautiful slice of the Red Planet from the northern polar cap downwards, and highlights cratered, pockmarked swathes of the Terra Sabaea and Arabia Terra regions. It comprises data gathered on June 17, 2019. This image was created using data from the nadir and color channels of Mars Express’ High Resolution Stereo Camera. The nadir channel is aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, as if looking straight down at the surface. North is up. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin.

ESA Releases Mesmerizing New Image of Mars

Sep 23, 2019 by News Staff

The High Resolution Stereo Camera onboard ESA’s Mars Express orbiter captured this detailed image of the Red Planet on June 17, 2019. This image from...

For DNA to be read, replicated or repaired, DNA molecules must open themselves. This happens when the cells use a catalytic protein to create a hydrophobic environment around the molecule. Image credit: Yen Strandqvist / Chalmers University of Technology.

Scientists Disprove Popular Theory of How DNA Binds Itself

Sep 23, 2019 by News Staff

DNA is constructed of two strands, consisting of sugar molecules and phosphate groups. Between these two strands are nitrogen bases, the compounds which...

Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri). Image credit: Michael Van Woert / NOAA NESDIS / ORA.

Researchers Sequence Genomes of All Living Penguin Species

Sep 20, 2019 by News Staff

Scientists from the Penguin Genome Consortium have produced 19 high-coverage penguin genome sequences that, together with two previously published genomes,...

A portrait of a juvenile female Denisovan based on a skeletal profile reconstructed from ancient DNA methylation maps. Image credit: Maayan Harel.

Scientists Reconstruct Skeletal Anatomy of Denisovans

Sep 19, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Israel and Spain has produced reconstructions of Denisovans, an extinct sister group of Neanderthals, based on patterns of methylation...

The structure of the Eustachian tube in a Neanderthal man. Image credit: SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University.

Chronic Ear Infections Contributed to Neanderthal Extinction

Sep 19, 2019 by News Staff

Neanderthals may have been doomed to extinction because they had persistent, life-long ear infections due to the structure of their Eustachian tubes, a...

Schmitz et al argue that the mid-Ordovician ice age was caused by global cooling, triggered by extra dust in the atmosphere of Earth from the breakup of a giant asteroid in the main asteroid belt. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Dust from Disintegrated Asteroid Triggered Mid-Ordovician Ice Age

Sep 19, 2019 by News Staff

There’s always a lot of extraterrestrial dust floating down to Earth, but this dust is normally only a tiny fraction of the other dust in our atmosphere...

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Saturn’s Rings are as Old as Solar System Itself, Study Suggests

Sep 18, 2019 by News Staff

The famous ring system of Saturn may be much older than some planetary scientists think, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Astronomy. NASA’s...

Artist’s illustration showing a massive exoplanet falling into its host star -- one of the possible explanations for the strange dimming of KIC 8462852. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Alfred Vidal-Madjar, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS.

Melting Exomoon May Explain Long-Term Dimming of Milky Way’s ‘Most-Mysterious Star’

Sep 18, 2019 by News Staff

A team of astrophysicists from Columbia University proposes that the strange long-term dimming of the KIC 8462852 star (also known as Tabby’s star or...

Rudapithecus hungaricus was pretty ape-like and probably moved among branches like apes do now. However, it would have differed from modern great apes by having a more flexible lower back, which would mean when Rudapithecus hungaricus came down to the ground, it might have had the ability to stand upright more like humans do. Image credit: John Siddick.

Miocene Hominid Fossil Sheds New Light on Evolution of Human Bipedalism

Sep 18, 2019 by News Staff

Researchers have analyzed a pelvis of the 10 million-year-old fossil ape Rudapithecus hungaricus and found that human bipedalism might possibly have deeper...

Protodontopteryx ruthae. Image credit: Derek Onley / Canterbury Museum.

Bony-Toothed Seabird Lived in New Zealand 62 Million Years Ago

Sep 18, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists have found the remains of a pelagornithid bird that lived 62 million years ago (early Paleocene epoch) in New Zealand. Protodontopteryx...

© 2011-2025. Sci.News. All Rights Reserved. | Back to top